Fusion Research Delivers RMR with SoundMachine Music Service for Business

Media server maker Fusion Research teams with SoundMachine to provide streaming music services to commercial clients, with recurring revenue for the integrator. Better than SiriusXM for Business.

SoundMachine music service for business integrates with popular home automation systems, providing rich opportunities for home-tech pros to service commercial markets and receive RMR for the privilege.

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Fusion was started in 2003 by a small team of successful entrepreneurs from the cutting edge world of dynamic medical imaging and storage. The partners founded and ran their...

Plenty of home-technology integrators provide music servers to commercial clients, but there’s two big problems: 1. The clients often stream music in their establishment without compensating the artists via the streaming service. That’s illegal. 2. Integrators make no recurring monthly revenue (RMR) on the service.

Fusion Research, a popular media-server manufacturer in the home-technology channel, solves both of those problems in one fell swoop. Fusion has teamed with SoundMachine, provider of a licensed music platform for businesses, to enable integrators to serve their commercial clients while enjoying royalties every month, for every location, for as long as the client subscribes to the service.

Before this deal, Sonos was the only other product to have this service integrated into their servers, according to Fusion VP sales Ingo Schmoldt.

SoundMachine: Better than SiriusXM

SoundMachine offers both set stations and custom playlists for companies that demand personalization.

Before this deal, Sonos was the only other product to have this SoundMachine integrated into their servers.

“They rely heavily on custom installers to promote the service,” says Schmoldt, “and they offer a Partner Program with a very attractive recurring revenue incentive.”

SoundMachine offers more than 60 playlists, with music fully licensed by the content cops at ASCAP, BMI, SESAC. The service costs $29.99 a month per location.

“Unlike SiriusXM for Business which is only one stream, SoundMachine can play different music in different parts of a public space for that same $29.99 a month,” Schmoldt says, stipulating that the music is licensed for one control system at any given location.

Furthermore, SoundMachine offers a central-management software tool, allowing clients to control multiple accounts and locations. For example, one office can manage playlists for a string of stores nationwide, and they can also create messages and set them to play at different times throughout the day.

“A lot of integrators, especially residentially focused integrators, don’t offer their clients commercially licensed music,” says Schmoldt, pointing to Fusion’s own dealer research. “This puts the client at risk of fines if caught playing regular streaming music services or their own personal music collections.”

“The custom integration market is an extremely important growth channel for us”

— Matteo Luppi
SoundMachine CEO

SoundMachine shows up as an automatic update on any Summit-based Fusion music server’s configuration utility. The service is accessible via Fusion’s home-automation partners, including Crestron, Control4, RTI, Elan, URC, Niles, Speakercraft, Compass Controls and some Savant systems.

Fusion’s single-source servers with Burr-Brown DACs start at $499 MSRP. Multi-source units start at $799 and can be stacked to increase the number of streams available, enabling proprietors to stream multiple discrete licensed music streams in one location.

As for Fusion, which has been engaged in the “CEDIA” residential market since 2003, the company has never played in the commercial “Infocomm” space.

“We’re looking at this as a major way to enter the commercial market as well as helping our residential dealers who do commercial jobs,” says Schmoldt.

SoundMachine CEO Matteo Luppi couldn’t be happier.

“The custom integration market is an extremely important growth channel for us,” he says. “By having our service included in Fusion’s music servers, we are immediately available to be used in most of the leading automation systems.”

Most technology products are not that visually appealing. Black boxes and tangled wires do not add to the character of a high-end smart home project. Luckily, our integrator readers have a number of clever solutions so these components don’t have to be visible in your next project.

About the Author

Julie Jacobson, recipient of the 2014 CEA TechHome Leadership Award, is co-founder of EH Publishing, producer of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and other leading technology publications. She currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro in the areas of home automation, security, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. Julie majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, spent a year abroad at Cambridge University, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. She's a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player currently residing in Carlsbad, Calif. Email Julie at jjacobson@ehpub.com